CHDI recently released an Issue Brief and two Policy Briefs:

• Issue Brief - Paid Family Leave Supports Healthy Brain Development and Promotes Healthy Families - examines paid family leave policy opportunities from a child health perspective, drawing from CHDI's recent policy brief below.

• Policy Brief - Ensuring the Best Start for Connecticut's Children:  Aligning Policy with Science - emerged from a summit of early childhood experts and leaders and by an exploration of examples from other states and communities. The Brief outlines ways policymakers and others can maximize the possibility that children have a strong foundation in life through their bond with a consistent, nurturing caregiver.

• Policy Brief - Ensuring Young Children Grow Up at a Healthy Weight:  Policy Opportunities to Prevent Obesity - gives an overview of the childhood obesity issue, highlights opportunities for prevention, and recommends five specific ways that Connecticut's child care settings and hospitals can help our youngest children get off to a healthy start. Media coverage

CHDI has received a grant for $10,000 from the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice at Policy Research Associates, Inc. to pilot the evidence-based SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) approach in Connecticut. SBIRT is an early intervention approach for substance abuse. In collaboration with the Judicial Branch's Court Support Services Division (CSSD), CHDI will help coordinate the pilot at four sites in Connecticut to address the needs of youth with juvenile justice involvement. In addition, CHDI will ensure alignment of these efforts with other statewide efforts to disseminate SBIRT.

Lisa Honigfeld posted on Connecticut Children's Office for Community Health's "Advancing Kids" blog about her trip to Nordic countries (Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway) to learn about health and social services for children. In addition to recently being ranked among the happiest countries in the world, these countries are noteworthy because their populations are among the healthiest. They spend fewer per capita dollars on health services than the U.S., which ranks at the bottom of developed countries in terms of life expectancy and infant mortality.Click here to read her blog.

CHDI's Jason Lang and Kim Campbell are co-authors of an article published in Child Maltreatment, a premier academic journal disseminating original research, information and technical innovations on child abuse and neglect. The article, "Building Capacity for Trauma-Informed Care in the Child Welfare System: Initial Results of a Statewide Implementation" reviews how the first three years of the federally funded Connecticut Collaborative on Effective Practices for Trauma (CONCEPT) initiative improved child welfare staff knowledge and practice regarding child trauma.

Several articles addressed childhood obesity prevention in Connecticut, following the release of CHDI's policy brief: "Ensuring Young Children Grow Up at a Healthy Weight: Policy Opportunities to Prevent Obesity." Click here for a full list with links. Highlights include:

• C-HIT: "Fight Childhood Obesity In Preschools, Child Care Centers,New Report Says"

• Connecticut by the Numbers: "Combatting Childhood Obesity StartsFrom Day One; Wide-Ranging Policies Proposed"

• Meriden Record-Journal and the Plainville Citizen: When It Comes to Childhood Obesity, You Can't Sit Idly"

Over the past three years, through CHDI's Educating Practices In the Community (EPIC) program, CHDI has trained 226 pediatric health providers in 31 practices to screen for maternal mental illness. Click here to watch the WTNH News 8 story.